Lots of strong, clean power and versatility.

Remote takes some getting used to.

My old system was 7 years old, I thought it was time to update. I found this site with the reviews the day after I ordered my 5250, and the reviews reinforced my decision to buy Yamaha.
I was expecting just a minor improvement over the old system. The 5250 just blew the old system away. Musically, I'm hearing notes the Denon didn't pick up. Put "Gladiator" in the DVD, it sounded like you were sitting in the col-
seum. "Top Gun" was like being on a flight deck. The only downside, now I want to upgrade the TV(27' Toshiba),DVD player(Toshiba 1600) and speakers(Boston Acoustics Sub-Sat6 for sub and rear, Boston Acoustic CR-6 for the front, and an old 80 dollar Koss for the center. I've read a couple of negative reviews and I don't get it, there's nothing wrong with this receiver. Better reread the manual.

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Denon AVR800

DTS, Cinema DSP's

Volume indicator not easily visible, no 5 channel stereo

Bought the Denon AVR681/1601 from Sears for 399.00 but returned it after reading reviews for for Yamaha 5250 which has more power and priced less than the Denon 2801. Also got Sears to price match Electroline Online price of 365.00 but paid tax and 39.00 for 3yr service plan. Dinosaur sounded incredible in DTS also clarity of sword fights in Mask of Zorro sounded better than the Denon.I like the versitility of the Cinema DSP's when viewing movies over again, DTS Spectacle and Adventure sounded pretty good used DTS General for What Lies Beneath and the dialog came across very clear and even and I didn't have to adjust the volume. I miss the 5 channel stereo from the Denon though. The Yamaha remote is better than the Denon its bigger easier to read and the buttons aren't so close together.
System includes
Polk Cs 245i center
Polk RT 25i fronts
Polk RT 15i rears
Polk PSW 250 sub
Sony DVPS 360

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Denon AVR681

Excellent clean power

No LED on volume control knob, poor design of Remote

This receiver is good value for money with provisions for all inputs that you will ever need. Like another reviewer mentioned, there is no problem with its DTS mode; it gives superb reproduction with DTS DVDs. I am using Wharfedale Opal-100 as front speakers and Infinity RS-4 as rear. With JBL S-Center and Yamaha YST-SW90 sub-woofer, this receiver delivers unbelievably excellent sound quality even at low volume levels. I am now used to the remote and it controls most necessary functions (even though not all) of my DVD, VCR and TV (all Toshiba). Highly recommended. Star, Star, Star

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Sony, Onkyo

awsome sound for the buck

no 5 channel stereo

I sell this reciever for sears, and yes, I love our price matching policy too!
It's one of our top sellers, due to great reviews like all of yours, thanx!
Because of all the good reviews and from demo-ing it daily i traded my older denon in for this Yamaha
The 5250 blows away it's competition in the $500 price range with it's available power, features and overall sound quality. The remote is a breeze, once you've used it for awhile. Its just a shame that you can't use all of that 110 watts per channel in stereo mode (like Denon), seems like a waste.
Still, overall an awsome value! I love mine, and so do my customers.

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denon, h/k

Excellent overall sound and quality. Great features.

Of course the remote has something to be desired.

Great receiver all around. I got it for the cheap 200 bucks only because the Good(bad)Guys screwed up. They had the clearance sale on this receiver for $250, which is awesome. I paid the $250 but they said that they had to inventory the shipment of 4 receivers that just came in and to stop by in a few hours. I came back later and they took about 20 minutes to tell me they made a mistake and had no 5250's in stock, dumb s&*%s. Needless to say I wanted to kill the sales jerks. They told me I could go across town and get one from another store or I could take the floor model that they had just put out. I checked the floor model out and it looked pretty new with no finger prints etc with the warranty... I told them to take $50 off the price and there you have it, 200 bucks, what a deal for this great receiver!

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Yamaha, Kenwood, Sony

Great Sound , easy set up

Remote

Great bang for the buck , definetly comparable with higher end units that cost much more

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Sony

clarity, low-volume response, lack of distortion

no component TV input/output, no banana clips for center and surrounds

I bought this to replace my old Pro Logic HK. I expected it to perform well for the price, and was surprised to find that i performs as well or better than anything I auditioned in the $500-600 range (Onkyo 787, HKI have been nothing but happy with it. I also have a Onkyo 787 and this receiver is much clearer in the high and midrange, and sounds better at lower volumes. DTS processing is very impressive, better than the Onkyo 484 or the HK AVR220. It competes pretty well with my Onkyo 787, in fact. The receiver is a bargain if you can still find one.

The new Yamaha 54XX series has component inputs, but Yamaha seems to have gone back to it's habit of making everything sound too bright. I don't think the 5450 sounds as good as the 5250.

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Onkyo 484, AVR220, Onkyo 787

clean crisp and powerful

none at this price

i spend 3 months looking for the best receiver for my budget after looking at the good reviews here i decided on the yamaha 5250 this baby really puts out clean sound nice bass great mids and highs it blows away any receiver in its price range i find it hard to believe that anybody that really knows what music should sound like can give this receiver less than at least 4 stars

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sony845 kenwood pioneer crap

Power. Demanding power that rips my speakers at 12o' clock while still running cool. Real claen sound.

4 channel stereo, not 5. The RCA bass output on this model cuts off @ 90hz, SO WEAK I'm running speaker wire to a sub that can really hit.

The main reason for purchasing this receiver was DTS. Yamaha has a reputation for building great receivers and this model was the jump from IC chips to power transistors in the amp section. Boy, was I glad I chose this one. I really do feel this receiver to be one of the better one's by yamaha. It's essentially any other model above it minus 6.1 decoding and 5 less watts per channel. Big woop! First of all, this receiver already has too much power to begin with, and secondly, I feel 6.1,7.1 to 12.1? are not going to survive in this consumer market. i don't see very many dvd's with dts-es or dd matrix? I feel 5.1 is a solid platform that's going to be around for a while. Unlike superaudio cd or dvd-audio. What I'm currently running: fronts; yamaha ns-2836's(which sound better than the 37's) center; yamaha ac143(o.k., but blends well with the fronts) rears; pinnacle ac-400's( damn good surrounds, better than anything by yamaha) sub: DCM dc-10 with a DB Crossfire car sub and some polyfill(800 times better than the stock sub) with audioquest type 2 wire running to everything except my sub. The performance is outstanding considering it's price range. The audioquest speaker wire really cleaned things up. The only way to upgrade now is to spend thousands, and I'm not ready to do that quite yet. For now I'm just fine.

The only reason it's getting a four is because there's always something better.

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yamaha, pinnacle, dcm and audioquest.

digital processors, low imp. drive, signal meter, sweet looking with no frills

no digital input for cd player, but it don't bother me much

This reciever is crisp, clear, and does everything i want it to do. It has dolby digital and DTS which was the mail reason for purchasing it. Every time i listened to it after that i found one thing after another that impressed me. some great things are the major things like the DTS and digital processors and the low impedence drive, to the simple things like the signal meter on the tuner and the sleep timer, i also love the looks of it, espesialy the orange writing on the screen. one great thing is that you can do everything from the remote, the only thing that i know of that can't be done is switching "A" and "B" speakers and the tone and balance controls. over all this is a great reciever made by a great company.

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i used to have a Technics, and i suppose other HTR's